In this newly developed image by NASA and the European Space Agency, taken by the latter’s Herschel space observatory across five different wavelengths, a star-forming region within the constellation of Vulpecula (Latin for “little fox”) – located 8,000 light-years away from Earth – is dramatically revealed.

This particular region, known as Vulpecula OB1, is a "stellar association," a section of deep space that gives birth to the most massive stars known to humanity – types “O” and “B”. True to form, some of the giant stars in this image are the most massive in the galaxy; as big stars tend to do, these will burn out quickly and have short, violent lives.

Some of these nuclear forges are estimated to be around 2 million years old, meaning that they are already nearing the end of their lifespans and are due to turn into cataclysmic supernovae sometime in the near future, astronomically speaking.

The O stars are anywhere from 16 to 100 times more massive than our own Sun, and up to 1 million times brighter to boot. B stars, on the other hand, are only between 2 and 16 times as massive as the Sun, and up to 30,000 times brighter. Only those that have a mass equivalent to eight Suns or more will undergo a runaway self-destructive collapse leading to a supernova; those under that will swell before shaking off their outer layers, forming a planetary nebula.

In either case, much of that leftover material, those nuclear ashes viewable in this beautiful image, will eventually begin to collapse and form the basis of new stars – and thus, the celestial cycle of death and rebirth continues.